You gotta FIGHT for your RIGHT to be an Entrepreneur

CEO

In Oregon, entrepreneurs are no joke. It can be a thankless job – battling in the trenches day after day, overcoming challenges and living our roller-coaster ride of ups and downs. Once a year, At the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network (OEN) Annual Awards dinner, 800 entrepreneurs, investors, and those connected to us all gather at the Portland Hilton Hotel to celebrate entrepreneurs throughout the state and make the evening into an awesome Hollywood production. I’ve been to this event almost every year for the past decade and always enjoy it – great networking, everyone dressed up in their best suits, tuxes, and dresses, and then it gets pretty formal during the actual awards presentation. In past years, there have been some slow periods during the presentation, but last year, Ray King – CEO of AboutUs was Master of Ceremony for the event and rocked it with a little rap that he made up that got the crowd laughing. Ray’s performance raised the bar for this year and I knew that my co-MC Angela Jackson and I needed to go BIG!

As most entrepreneurs do, Angela Jackson and I took a risk and we decided to sing (which was really more like shouting) an entrepreneurial re-make of the Beastie Boys song “You Gotta Fight for your Right to Party!” Background instrumentals blaring over the speakers, we had no choice once the music began to do anything other than go 110% into our rap routine trading each line below as our own anthem to the crowd of 800 shocked people who went from silence to fully joining us in the chorus the last half of the song.

The video from the OEN Awards dinner has not yet been released, but here is a photo and the lyrics to wet your appetite.

You start a new company and risk it all.
You’re naive as hell, gonna have a ball.
In no time flat, you’re out of money.
Start robbing nest eggs like the Easter bunny
You gotta fight, for your right, to PROFIT!
Your product has bugs, but it’s got to ship
Each of your advisors has a different tip
Your market’s gonna love it if they take a look
And you know you’re ’bout to be the next Facebook!
You gotta fight, for your right, to PROFIT!
Now you’re at the Awards for OEN
One day they’ll all say, “yo, we knew them when.”
Get the mic outta our hands cuz we can’t sing
Finalists t’nite, yo y’all are the KINGS
You gotta fight, for your right, to PROFIT!
You gotta fight, for your right, to PROFIT!